Pick-up trucks are popular, in part, because they may be used to transport a wide variety of objects. For example, pick-up trucks may be used to transport relatively heavy wheeled vehicles such as motorcycles, All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), snow mobiles, personal watercraft, and lawn tractors. Ramps may be used to facilitate loading and unloading wheeled vehicles into the bed of the pick-up truck, but even with the use of ramps heavy objects may be difficult to load into the truck bed that may be more than three feet above the ground.
Winches may be used to facilitate loading vehicles into the truck bed. Bed winch mount assemblies are known for attaching a winch and winch motor or drive to pick-up truck beds. However, the assemblies are designed to be attached to the top of the floor of the truck bed, stake pockets on the top edge of the sidewalls, the end wall of the bed, or the cab of the pick-up truck. These types of winch mounting assemblies take up cargo space within the truck bed. Permanent connectors or adapters are required to be attached to the pick-up truck to receive the bed winch mount assemblies that necessitate drilling holes in the truck bed and may compromise the anti-corrosion coatings and paint.
Aluminum pick-up trucks have been developed to reduce vehicle weight and provide improved fuel efficiency, increased cargo capacity and better handling. Fasteners such as common steel screws and bolts are difficult to adequately secure to the body panels forming the pick-up truck bed and are not recommended to be used with an aluminum pick-up truck box. In addition, galvanic corrosion may develop between the aluminum body parts and steel fasteners that can adversely affect the paint or durability of the pick-up truck bed.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.